


i won't let you die - AND I WON'T STAND BY

by DragonGirl218



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Get Dunked On, Get Rekt Chara, No Mercy Route, Post-Nearly Completed No Mercy Route, Post-Neutral Route (Undertale), Post-Pacifist Route, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-27
Updated: 2016-11-24
Packaged: 2018-05-03 17:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5299325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonGirl218/pseuds/DragonGirl218
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chara's been getting craftier with each RESET.  Sans knows that next time they'll probably beat him and he doesn't dare ponder what might happen next.  Instead he decides to step in while his world, his brother, is at stake instead of hoping that Frisk will regain control at some point.  Because that hasn't worked much in the past and he can't take any more chances.</p><p>(Sans has vague memories of past timelines, specifically some of the last things to happen in each timeline.  Papyrus is a confused puppy with a heart of gold.  Chara is an ass who should gtfo.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gonna Have a Bad Time

**Author's Note:**

> Tried to emulate the skelebros' fonts with bold+lowercase for Sans and italics+uppercase for Papyrus. Personally find that just lower/uppercase sometimes gets hard to discern if Sans is shouting or Papyrus is being quiet.

Sans stood behind a tree, his feet mere inches away from the river that delivered ice to the Core, as he watched the scene through the magical fog.  In all the other timelines he had never bothered to watch the kid and Papyrus meet.  When the kid looked to be doing good, he saw no reason to mess with them; when the kid looked like they were going down a bad path, he trusted his brother to sway them.  Thing was, Pap had managed to sway them a lot during the first several bad runs.

The first time he failed, Sans had been devastated.  But the kid seemed stunned too, and they cleaned up their act.  The next time he failed the kid made it farther before the killing got to be too much.  On and on the pattern repeated with the kid gradually getting farther and farther before hitting RESET.  It wasn’t even back-to-back either.  The bad timelines were interspersed among the good ones, so there was always hope.

The last few timelines, though?  Sans remembered those more than he’d care to admit.  Not a good run among the bunch, and he’d had to give the kid a bad time.  Each time they RESET and came back they were tougher.  They stocked up better, seemed to squeeze out some extra Execution Points, and they picked up on his attacks easier.

Sans knew that if the kid made it to him this time, they’d most likely win, and he didn’t dare think what they’d do after that.  He felt like he already knew to some extent.  Just like he felt as if he knew the best way this could turn out.  Buried deep in his flashes of past timelines, he could occasionally catch glimpses of a remembered sunset, could feel the heat of real sunlight on his cheekbones.

That was why he hadn’t killed the kid right off the bat.  Even when he’d clearly seen the white dust that coated their hands and clothes, even having seen their unerring march forward without a care for puns or japes.  There was still hope.  Still the chance that Papyrus could set them on a better path.  Sure, True Pacifist was out of the kid’s reach, but a Neutral ending or even an early RESET would be better.

Anything would be better than losing Papyrus.

Again.

But also not yet.

...

Time shenanigans made things weird, especially with only faint jumbled memories of the past timelines.

Sans shook his head.  Papyrus was talking to the kid and he needed to focus, not reminisce about the past.  Pasts?  Whatever.  He’d already missed part of Papyrus’ speech, and he noted that the kid was uncomfortably close with their intense stare, but they didn’t seem ready to pounce yet.

“... _I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!_ ” the tall, lanky skeleton declared.  He held his arms out to either side as he knelt down on one knee.  The human was pretty short, pretty young, so he felt the need to lower himself to be less intimidating.  He wanted the human to do good and he didn’t want them to be scared.

The human child seemed to barely acknowledge the loud skeleton’s words.  They lumbered forward, one step in front of the other, as snow crunched underfoot.  It was difficult to tell if the white powder that covered them from head to foot was snow or monster dust.  At least it would have been, if it had snowed at any point in the past three days.  But it hadn’t.  That was undeniably dust.  But would they add more to it, or would Papyrus’ words sway them?

The human lifted their arms up as they approached, seemingly getting ready to hug Papyrus.  Sans breathed a sigh of relief from behind the tree, despite his lack of lungs.  It looked like he didn’t have to worry about things this ti--

Sans noticed something gray and pointy peeking out of the kid’s sweater.  There was a chance it wasn’t bad. Surely that wasn’t a knife.  It was hard to see through the fog, though it was quickly dissipating now.  He hoped for the best, but he could hear his brother’s bones rattling in fear.  Well, Papyrus would probably claim that he was shaking in anticipation of the best human hug ever, if only because fear wouldn’t do much good for his cool reputation.  The point was, Sans kept his eyes on the human.  His usual pinpricks of light faded out as a blue haze fell over his left socket.  It wouldn’t be seen through the fog, but he wanted to be prepared.

Suddenly the human lunged forward.  One step, and their blank expression twisted into a bloodthirsty grin.  Two steps, and they pulled their arm back.  Three steps, and they leaped forward, stabbing out with the toy knife in their hand…!

Papyrus had realized what was going on a moment too late to move.  All he could do was cover his eyes with his gloved hands and wait for the inevitable.  ...The inevitable was taking a while longer than expected.  After a couple seconds he slowly pulled his hands away to see the human frozen in place with the knife mere inches from his sternum.

“ _HUMAN…??!_ ” he asked in shock.  He didn’t get any further in voicing his thoughts before the human went flying backwards to land in a conveniently located snow poff.  His eyes went wide as his mouth hung open.  “ _HUMAN, I DID NOT REALIZE YOU COULD FLY!!!_ ” he exclaimed in surprise as he jumped to his feet.

“ **that’s because they can’t, bro,** ” Sans stated as he stepped out from his hiding spot.  His eye wasn’t glowing anymore and he sauntered out with his hands in his pockets like usual.

“ _SANS?!!  WHY ARE YOU HERE??!  DID YOU COME TO SEE YOUR BROTHER BECOME THE COOLEST SKELETON IN TOWN BY BEFRIENDING THE HUMAN?!?!!_ ” Papyrus asked in his usual Outdoor Voice.  Despite his boastful tone, however, his expression was still somewhat perplexed.  “ _ALSO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HUMAN THEN???_ ”

“ **well pap, you’re already the coolest skeleton in town.  everybody wants _tibia_ after all.** ”  Sans waited a moment for Papyrus to groan at his pun, which he responded to with a wink before continuing.  “ **but yeah bro, i totally want to see you befriend the human.  i just need to make sure they know what to do,** ” he explained as he turned away from Papyrus to look toward where he’d flung the human.

It took a moment but eventually the human’s mop of brown hair emerged from the snow poff.  Their eyebrows were focused in frustration and their eyes had opened slightly to reveal angry red irises.  Their smile, however, was still that eerie grin that seemed too big for their face.  They pushed themself up and out of the snow and quickly patted off the excess white powder.  They stomped back towards the skeleton brothers whilst idly flipping the plastic knife in their hand.

“Hey Shortstuff, what are _you_ doing here?” they asked with surprised yet malicious glee.

“ **ouch, low blow there, kid,** ” Sans replied.  He tried to keep up his usual joking tone, but his eyelights had gone out when he recognized the kid’s mannerisms.  That certainly wasn’t Frisk in there this time.

“ _YOU DO NOT HAVE MUCH RIGHT TO INSULT SANS’ HEIGHT WHEN YOU AREN’T ANY TALLER, HUMAN!!  I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM TALLER THAN BOTH OF YOU COMBINED, AND--WAIT, SANS, DID YOU MAKE A PUN THERE??!!_ ” Papyrus asked when he finally connected “low” with shortness.  Which elicited a genuine chuckle from the skeleton in the blue jacket.

“ **heh.  i actually didn’t intend for that one.  but sometimes the best puns are accidents,** ” he admitted to his brother.  Then his focus was back on the kid, who had started the slow march forward once more.  “ **now kid, i’m just here to make sure you play nice.  my bro here,** ” he pointed his thumb over his shoulder at Papyrus for emphasis, “ **he’s the coolest.  he’s so nice he couldn’t harm a fly.  i’m sure he’ll grant you MERCY if you just ask.  and if you don’t go for it, well…** Let’s just say, you better take his MERCY, capiche?”

Papyrus observed the scene quietly.  He felt a chill down his vertebrae as he listened to Sans.  His brother’s voice was normally so warm and goofy, but this time it felt colder than the snow they stood in.  “ _S-SANS…  I’M SURE THE HUMAN KNOWS THAT ALREADY.  RIGHT, HUMAN?_ ” he asked with unusual hesitance.

The human laughed.  It sounded unnatural.  Bone-chilling.  The laugh of a serial murderer with no regrets.  “Trust me, you pasta obsessed _imbecile_ , I know this song and dance,” they said in frigid delight.  Their grin stretched even wider as they played with the toy knife in their hand.  “Of course, I’ve never dealt with your surprisingly competent brother _this_ early before…” they added, clearly a bit thrown off.

“ _I-IMBECILE?_ ” Papyrus questioned in outrage.  He closed his eyes and posed dramatically.  “ _YOU THINK THAT I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM AN_ IMBECILE _?!  I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW--_ ”

“ **PAP, DODGE!** ”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle commences. Sans shows what he can do, to Papyrus' surprise and Chara's delight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, not quite a year since the first chapter went up, but...whoops. Sorry about that. I got my Bachelor's degree in the meantime, if that helps excuse it any. ^_^;;;

The sudden shout from Sans snapped Papyrus out of his monologue just in time to see the human barreling towards him with their knife ready to stab.  His bones were locked in place due to a sudden bout of fear.  He couldn’t move!  “ _ Oh dear… _ ” he managed to mutter quietly as he braced himself for the inevitable once more.  Time seemed to slow to a crawl as events unfolded.

Sans’ eyelights went out, replaced by wisps of blue magic that radiated from his left socket.

The human’s Soul turned Blue for a moment and Sans gestured with his arm, but their momentum was too much for him to counteract.

Papyrus heard a  _ ding! _ inside his head and felt the grip of Blue magic on his Soul before he was yanked to the side.

The human thrust forward and hit nothing but air, which caused them to lose their balance and tumble into the snow, while Papyrus unceremoniously collapsed into a pile once his Soul was released from the magic.

Sans breathed a sigh of relief.  “ **talk about** **_cutting_ ** **it close,** ” he said, more to himself than anything given the states of the other two.  That said, the sound of groaning came to him in stereo as both Papyrus and the human both lacked appreciation for his pun.

“ _ REALLY SANS, IS THIS THE TIME??! _ ” Papyrus asked as he pulled himself back up to his feet.  He started to brush snow off of his Battle Body before a thought suddenly occurred to him.  “ _ WHO GRABBED MY SOUL ANYWAY??  HUMANS CANNOT USE MAGIC, AND YOU…??? _ ”  He glanced around, but...yep, Sans was the only other monster around.  But...Sans couldn’t use Blue!  He could barely manage a few normal attacks during their spars!  Plus, learning Blue was too much hard work for such a lazy bones!  It just didn’t make any sense!

Meanwhile, quiet laughter started from the direction of the human -- who was still face-first in the snow, mind -- which gradually got louder as they pulled themselves up and brushed off flakes of snow and layers of dust.  “Wow, you really  **don’t** know the  _ first thing _ about your brother…!”  They doubled over as the laughter became too powerful for their little body.  “Oh man, this is  _ rich _ !” they cried out when their laughter had subsided enough.

Sans glared at the human, but Papyrus just looked even more confused...and a little hurt.  “ _ S-Sans…? _ ”  Quiet for once, he glanced between the not-quite-right human and his maybe-not-lazy brother.  This was too much for the skeleton to sort out…

“ **just don’t worry ‘bout it, bro.  i’ll...explain later,** ” Sans stated.  He sounded more tired than usual.  He knew the human needed to be fought, he knew Paps wouldn’t approve, and now he’d need to try to explain the situation to his brother despite his own limited knowledge of the details.  “ **for now, we need to deal with the human.  it looks like they want a B A D  T I M E…** ”

The human grinned at those words.  Ahaha!  So they’d get to fight Sans, and so early…!  On the one hand, the fight would be hell; on the other, the pathetic skeleton wasn’t yet driven by grief and his bleeding-heart brother would be a distraction.  “Bring it on, you lazy sack of trash!”

“ _HUMAN!!  THAT IS NOT NICE TO SA--!!_ ”  Papyrus’ reprimand was cut short by a sound that could only be described as the fabric of space-time itself being warped by the massive animal skull which materialized out of thin air.  His eye sockets went wide as he caught Sans’ left arm thrust in the direction of the human, followed immediately by that skull -- a thing which should-not-be, made of ludicrous amounts of coalesced magic -- unhinging its lower jaw and letting loose a veritable laser of raw magic, blindingly bright and hot enough to instantly evaporate the inches of well-trodden, hard-packed snow which used to be there.

The taller skeleton blinked to clear the light out of his eyes.  The skull was gone, smoky wisps of blue magic trailed from the left side of Sans’ face -- or so he assumed, given that he could only see his brother’s back from his vantage point -- and the human…!  Oh gods, where was the human…!

“Augh!  Dammit, that hurts even  _ worse _ with less HP to rely on…!” the human cursed as they cradled their left arm.  Looked like that got caught in the blast, judging by their singed shirt sleeve.  Their toy knife was tucked into the pocket of their shorts as they pulled out a cinnamon bunny, which was hastily consumed.  Being monster food, the snack managed to heal their arm, though their shirt sleeve would be a casualty until it could be repaired.  ...Pfft, as if.  They didn’t care what they looked like, as long as they accomplished their goal.  They would just need to be more careful with Sans this early.

For once, Papyrus was dumbstruck.  That attack, the damage to the human, the fact the human  _ survived _ .  So...that was the power of a human…?

And the attack…!  What even  _ was _ that?

While Papyrus worked through the events, Sans chuckled lightly as he stepped toward the human.  “ **dunno what you expected kiddo.  didja think i’d take it easy just ‘cuz you haven’t built up your LOVE?  think i’d put my brother’s perception of me above his own life?  if so, you’ve got another thing comin’,** ” he said as he raised his arm viciously and magical bones shot up from the ground beneath the kid’s feet, which they just barely dodged in time by leaping and rolling to the side.  Of course, Sans wasn’t one to use such a simple attack and leave it at that, so the human found themselves rolling into another set of magical bones.

They cried out in pain and grunted even after the bones dissipated.  “Ack!  What even  _ is _ that stupid attack of yours?!  No one else’s attacks keep -- ow! -- hurting during my turn!” they complained as they rubbed their backside and ate a Nice Cream.

“ **secret recipe, kid.  can’t tell a soul how it works -- oh, but you don’t have one, do you?** ” Sans asked with a wink of his darkened eye socket.  “ **man, i told you to keep pretending so Paps could finally see a human, but i guess that was too hard for you.  couldn’t just try to make everyone happy, eh?  have to go and slaughter everyone for -- what -- your own amusement?  like this is all some sort of** **_game_ ** **?** ”

For the first time in his life, Papyrus heard anger in his brother’s voice.  It was different from when he was mad at Sans’ jokes or not picking up his sock.  This was frightening.  It was  _ intense _ .  He didn’t think Sans was capable of any sort of intensity.  Then again, he didn’t think his brother was capable of... _ anything _ he was seeing.  And yet, here he was, doing things he shouldn’t be capable of.

Once more that awful sound of reality warping rang out and caused Papyrus’ bones to shake.  That laser skull was back.  He was terrified of it.  But his worry for the human child overpowered that, having seen what it did last time.  As the skull began to power up, Papyrus’ long legs carried him towards his brother.  Sans soon found Paps’ arms wrapped around his torso, his brother’s mandible resting on his shoulder.  “ _ BROTHER, PLEASE, DO NOT DO THIS!  I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT IS GOING ON, BUT YOU CANNOT KILL A CHILD!  THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT ALLOW IT!!! _ ” he bellowed tearfully, kneeling in the snow to be level with his older brother.

The partially charged Gaster Blaster fizzled out as Sans’ concentration was broken.  The magically charged energy that had accumulated lashed out in a small explosion as it was no longer contained.  When Sans looked up and back at Papyrus, he saw a tendril of smoke wafting up from where the back of the taller skeleton’s shirt had been singed by the energy.  The magic in Sans’ left eye died down as his eyelights brightened back to normal.  His eye sockets shifted to an expression of concern for his brother.  “ **Paps…  you don’t understand…** ”

“ _ AND WHOSE FAULT IS THAT?  I THOUGHT I KNEW YOU.  I THOUGHT I  _ **_HAD_ ** _ TO DO SO MUCH WORK FOR US BECAUSE YOU WERE INCAPABLE, BUT NOW YOU ARE CAPABLE OF SO MUCH, INCLUDING  _ **_MURDER_ ** _!  WHAT I DO UNDERSTAND IS THAT THAT IS WRONG AND YOU MUST STOP! _ ”

Sans’ eyes widened at Papyrus’ anger, then closed as he let out a tired sigh.  “ **yeah, i know.  i got a lot to explain later.  i… understand why you’re upset.  but… it’s necessary, bro.** ”  He turned around to face his brother and lightly placed his hand against Papyrus’ chest.  The boisterous skeleton’s eyes widened as he slowly looked down at his chest… and saw his Soul light up bright Blue.  “ **sorry.** ”  That said, Sans pushed Papyrus away both physically and magically and sent him flying dozens of feet away, then created a cage of magical bones to keep him safe and secured away from himself and the human.  He knew his brother well enough to know it was one of the few ways to prevent him from throwing himself in the middle of the fight.

“ _ SAAAAAANS!  PLEASE, DO NOT DO IT!! _ ” Papyrus cried out desperately as he tried to rattle the bones of the cage, but their magical energy stood firm and merely started to burn through his gloves.

Sans’ eyelights died out as he heard his brother and he slowly turned back around to face the kid.  To face Chara.  The irredeemable one.  The one who would apparently ruin Papyrus’ happy life no matter what, whether by taking out the “life” or the “happy” part.

For once, he wasn’t smiling.

It was still his turn, so he took the time to charge up enough energy for his plan.  If he could annihilate Chara, perhaps they would stop coming back.  If they knew he was willing to act long before they had the LOVE to survive…  It was his best chance.

The roar was deafening as multiple Gaster Blasters formed in a ring above Chara.  They tried to run, but Sans made sure the Blasters kept Chara in their sights.  His magic flared up in a blue aura around his entire body.  He’d built up his magic reserves just for such an instance.

The Blasters charged up.  Their mouths couldn’t fully contain the energy, with some leaking out through their teeth.

“ _ SAAAAAAANS!  NOOOOOOOO!!! _ ”

The small skeleton raised his arm, then hesitated.  “ **this is for you, bro.  for us.  i can’t live without you.  not again.  be as mad at me as you want, as long as you’re here to be mad,** ” he said quietly, though his voice carried well through the silence.

His arm thrust downward.

The Blasters fired.

The human fell forward into the snow, lifeless.

The bone cage dissipated.

Sans collapsed from exhaustion.

And Papyrus?

Papyrus cried, overwhelmed by the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if I should leave it here, or include another chapter of Sans and Papyrus after the battle. What do you guys think?


End file.
